Volume 171 — Ohio State Reports, Third Series

Criminal law—Statutory speedy-trial right—Defendant's request for discovery operates as a tolling event pursuant to R.C. 2945.72(E) for the time the state reasonably needs to fulfill defendant's request—Trial court not required to contemporaneously identify tolling events on the record—Court of appeals' judgment affirmed.

Criminal law—R.C. 2953.21—Postconviction-relief petitions—Ineffective assistance of counsel—Res judicata—Postconviction claims alleging a denial of the constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel are not barred by res judicata if the claims cannot be meaningfully reviewed without resorting to evidence outside the trial record—Court of appeals' judgment affirmed.

Necessity of easements sought by agency through eminent domain—Applicability of necessity presumptions in R.C. 163.09(B)(1)—The term "appropriation" in R.C. 163.09(B)(1) means the appropriation of the specific property, or right therein, that is subject to the taking by the agency as set forth in its petition filed under R.C. 163.05—Agency did not "abandon" appropriation proceedings under R.C. 163.21(A) when it conceded that a term in proposed easements was unnecessary.

Criminal law—Aggravated murder—Findings of guilt and death sentence affirmed.

Medical malpractice—Absconded defendant—R.C. 2305.15(A)—R.C. 2305.113(C)—R.C. 2305.15(A) tolls the medical-claim statute of repose, R.C. 2305.113(C), and therefore does not bar the filing of a medical-malpractice claim against a defendant while that defendant is absconded from the state.

Criminal law—R.C. 2901.05—Affirmative defenses—Self-defense—Burden of production and burden of persuasion—Defendant has burden of production regarding self-defense claim and must produce legally sufficient evidence that defendant's use of force was in self-defense—State then has burden of persuasion to disprove self-defense claim beyond a reasonable doubt—On appeal, sufficiency-of-the-evidence standard of review applies to defendant's burden of production and manifest-weight standard of review applies to state's burden of persuasion—Court of appeals' judgment affirmed.

Habeas corpus—Inmate failed to state a cognizable habeas claim—Court of appeals' dismissal of petition affirmed.

Criminal law—Ineffective assistance of counsel—Deficient performance—Felony murder and felonious assault—Defense counsel's argument identifying victim's death as a "serious physical harm" did not reflect a misunderstanding of the law—Defense counsel's failure to request jury instructions that defendant was not entitled to was not ineffective—Court of appeals' judgment affirmed.

Marsy's Law, Article I, Section 10a of the Ohio Constitution—Restitution—R.C. 2929.18(A)(1)—Statutory meaning of restitution was not altered or expanded by Marsy's Law—Wages lost by crime victim as a result of victim's voluntarily attending criminal-court proceedings do not qualify for restitution from offender, because such losses are not a direct and proximate result of the commission of the offense.

Criminal law—Waiver of attorney-client privilege—Sixth Amendment right to confrontation—R.C. 2929.12(D)(5)—Fifth Amendment right to remain silent—Codefendant who became a state witness pursuant to proffer agreement did not voluntarily waive his attorney-client privilege when state disseminated to all parties during discovery recording of conversation between codefendant and his attorney, because codefendant and his attorney believed they were having private conversation in police-station interview room when recording was made—Codefendant's suppression-hearing testimony did not reveal substance of privileged communications with his attorney and therefore did not constitute voluntary waiver of his attorney-client privilege—Defendant failed to establish a violation of his Sixth Amendment right to confrontation because he did not demonstrate reasonable probability that but for his inability to cross-examine codefendant using recording of attorney-client privileged communication between codefendant and his counsel, result of defendant's trial would have been different—Trial court erred in considering defendant's decision to waive allocution and remain silent at sentencing hearing in its evaluation of defendant's lack of remorse under R.C. 2929.12(D)(5) when defendant pleaded not guilty to offenses with which he was charged and exercised his right to jury trial, but error did not affect sentence imposed, because defendant's sentence would have been the same given other factors trial court considered under R.C. 2929.12(D)—Judgment affirmed.

Criminal law—Search—Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution—Motion to suppress—A search occurs only when there is an attempt to find something or to obtain information—Officer's intent is determined through an objective inquiry—Motion to suppress correctly denied when gun was found in search that ensued after contraband was found in plain view in a car.

Postconviction—A postconviction petitioner should be entitled to a fair and impartial fact-finder when an evidentiary hearing has been granted—When a record demonstrates bias or prejudice on the part of a fact-finder, an appellate court should reverse the trial court's judgment—Court of appeals' judgment reversed and cause remanded.

Criminal law—R.C. 2941.25—Plain-error doctrine—A defendant who fails to preserve the issue of merger of allied offenses under R.C. 2941.25 by raising an objection in the trial court forfeits all but plain error—Defendant failed to establish that trial court's decision not to merge kidnapping and rape counts for purposes of sentencing constituted plain error—Judgment reversed and sentence imposed by trial court reinstated.

Mandamus—Inmate failed to attach to his original complaint a certified statement from prison cashier setting forth balance in his inmate account as required by R.C. 2969.25(C)— Court of appeals' dismissal of complaint seeking to compel trial court to permit inmate to independently test evidence sample affirmed.

When a court revokes community control, it may require that the reserved prison term be served consecutively to any other sentence then existing or then being imposed but only if at the time it imposed community control, it notified the offender that a consecutive sentence on revocation of community control was a possibility.

Bill of particulars—Article I, Section 10 of the Ohio Constitution—Crim.R. 7(E)—R.C. 2941.07—Upon written request by defendant, prosecuting attorney must provide defendant with bill of particulars setting forth specifically the nature of the offense charged and of the conduct of defendant alleged to constitute the offense.

Criminal law—Abuse of discretion—Crim.R. 11—Trial court abused its discretion by denying defendant's request to enter a no-contest plea based on trial court's own review of the appealable issues—Judgment reversed and cause remanded to trial court to allow defendant to enter a new plea in accordance with Crim.R. 11.

Criminal law—Marsy's Law—Restitution—Writ of mandamus is not appropriate remedy for crime victim to challenge trial court's denial of restitution—Victims should have used direct appeal to challenge trial court's sentence because they developed standing to appeal when trial court denied their request to impose restitution—Court of appeals' judgment affirmed.

Administrative law—Appellate review—Res judicata—Automated traffic cameras—Court of appeals' judgment reversed and caused remanded to the trial court.

Prohibition—Common pleas courts' general subject-matter jurisdiction over civil actions includes jurisdiction to enforce judgments they have rendered— Appellants failed to demonstrate that common-pleas-court judge lacks jurisdiction to issue writ of restitution to enforce settlement agreement in underlying forcible-entry-and-detainer case—Court of appeals' dismissal of prohibition action affirmed.

Certification of conflict dismissed as having been improvidently certified.

Contracts—Damages—Eminent domain—Parties did not make a material mistake about a basic assumption on which their contract was made—Settlement agreement was enforceable—Court of appeals' judgment reversed and cause remanded to the court of appeals.

Eminent domain—R.C. 163.04(B)—Good-faith purchase offer—Lack of good faith in the context of eminent-domain negotiations can be shown by presenting evidence of objectively unreasonable behavior—R.C. 163.021(A)—Exercise of eminent-domain powers must be necessary and for a public use—Inquiry into whether a taking is necessary asks whether the taking is for a public use, not whether the taking is in the best interest of the public as a whole.

Criminal law—R.C. 2929.14(B)(1)(g)—R.C. 2941.25(A)—R.C. 2929.14(B)(1)(g) permits imposing prison sentences for multiple firearm specifications attached to felonies committed as part of the same act or transaction when the underlying offenses to which those specifications are attached have been merged—Judgment affirmed.

Equitable liens—Before recognizing an equitable lien, a court must find a duty, debt, or obligation an identifiable res and an express or implied intent that property serve as security for payment of a debt or obligation, and it may also take into account traditional equitable considerations, such as whether third parties had notice of outstanding equitable interest, extent to which party seeking relief has come to court with clean hands, and whether that party has taken all reasonable steps to ensure that it obtained perfected lien—Parties to separation agreement lacked express or implied intent that ex-husband's stock would serve as security for his current obligation to pay monthly spousal-support payments in addition to his future quarterly obligation—Court of appeals' determination that ex-wife held equitable lien on ex-husband's stock securing his current monthly obligation reversed.

Court of appeals' judgment affirmed on the authority of Siltstone Resources, L.L.C. v. Ohio Pub. Works Comm. and Ohio Pub. Works Comm. v. Barnesville.

Criminal law—R.C. 2953.21—Postconviction-relief petitions—Evidentiary hearing—Ineffective assistance of counsel—Eyewitness-identification expert testimony—When core of a defendant's claim or defense turns on evidence that cannot be properly provided to jury without use of expert testimony, failure to engage experts can constitute deficient performance—Petitioner's affidavit from eyewitness-identification expert provided sufficient operative facts to warrant evidentiary hearing regarding petitioner's claim that he was prejudiced as a result of trial counsel's deficient performance—Court of appeals' judgment reversed and cause remanded to trial court for evidentiary hearing.

Mandamus—R.C. 2744.06—Writ sought to compel city to satisfy monetary judgment against it—Writ granted.

Judges—Affidavits of disqualification—R.C. 2701.03—Even in cases in which no evidence of actual bias or prejudice is apparent, a judge's disqualification may be appropriate to avoid an appearance of impropriety or when the public's confidence in the integrity of the judicial system is at issue—An appearance of bias can be just as damaging to public confidence as actual bias—Disqualification granted.

On motion for immediate interim remedial suspension.

On certified entry of felony conviction.

Attorneys at law—Resignation with disciplinary action pending—Gov.Bar R. VI(11)(C).

On application for reinstatement.

On certified entry of felony conviction.

On motion for immediate interim remedial suspension.